Friday, March 5, 2010

GO “IN THE SPIRIT

You can go “in the Spirit” to any nation on earth. You can touch an unreached people while on your knees. Indeed, your secret closet may become the headquarters for a movement of God’s Spirit over an entire nation.

I think of Abraham’s example. He prayed over godless, wicked Sodom. The Lord answered him, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes” (Genesis 18:26).

When Abraham heard this, he began to negotiate with the Lord. He asked, “(If) there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five?” (18:28). Abraham was asking, “Lord, what if there are forty-five righteous people among those fifty believers? What if only that many are praying seekers? Or, what if there are only ten upright people who seek you? If only ten call on you, will you spare the city?” God answered Abraham, “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake” (18:32).

This passage tells us something about the Lord. He is willing to save entire societies if he can find a band of righteous people within them. This speaks of people who seek his face for the sake of their nation.

God goes even further on this issue than he did with Abraham. In Ezekiel 22, God speaks of finding just one praying believer who will stand in the gap: “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).

At the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy, Israel was polluted spiritually. The prophets were profane, violating God’s law left and right. And the people were oppressed, vexed on all sides, full of lust, robbing one another. Not one person among them cried out to the Lord. Nobody stood in the gap to intercede. Yet God would have saved the entire nation for the sake of just one intercessor.

If you cannot physically go to the nations, you can be part of the support body of intercessors. And we are to assist those who have given themselves to go to the nations. When Paul writes of his journeys, he mentions not only Timothy and Titus as his helpers, but also Lydia and the other precious women who aided him. These were all devoted servants whose assistance helped touch entire nations with the gospel.